Growing up, my parents taught us that travel and exposure to the world around us and different cultures were very important.  They encouraged exploration and whetted our curiosity by taking us on trips to my Dad's homeland of Trinidad and Tobago and to other points of interest.  Long road trips from Montreal to Florida or camping trips in New Brunswick or Gatineau were things we were no strangers to.

Travel has always been a large part of my life and before I settled down and got married, I made sure to travel a lot.  Barbados, the Philippines, Singapore, Japan, Bali, and over thirteen U.S. states and (only) four Canadian provinces were among the places I marked off on my map.

It is my hope and dream that Little One gets the same opportunities to travel as I did.  She embarked on her first international trip last year when we went to the Philippines.

The experience for my then three year old was amazing.  It opened her eyes to a new lifestyle, language, culture, and a new life in general!

When PTPA introduced me to Little Passports, I thought it was a brilliant idea and a great way to foster the importance of travel and culture in children.

Little Passports is a great way to teach children about other countries and cultures through the adventures and world travels of Sam and Sofia.

With Little Passports, parents can inspire a love and understanding of the world as your child learns about geography, history, culture, and more through monthly packages delivered to your door (starting at $10.95/month).

Simply sign up, select your monthly subscription, and get set to learn about the world with Sam and Sofia! My daughter, though only four years old, absolutely LOVES Little Passports!  She was so excited to see the postcards, stickers, letters, souvenirs, etc.  Best of all, it was mail for her!  What kid doesn't love receiving mail?!

Little One can't read on her own yet (she's in Junior Kindergarten), so I helped her with reading the postcards and letters from Sam and Sofia.  I was surprised at how "into" the whole experience she was!  It was almost magical seeing her go on the adventure with them (so to speak).  She really seemed to feel like she was part of their adventures!

I thought it was neat that when Little One opened up the envelope from Japan, she found origami paper.  We had a layover in Tokyo on our way to the Philippines last year and Little One totally made the connection between the origami paper and what I had told her about Japan.  Incidentally, she loved Narita Airport!  I lived and worked in Japan from 1998 to 2000 and absolutely fell in love with the culture.  Little One somehow remembered hearing that and took a keen interest in what she was learning from Sam and Sofia's trip to Japan.

Did you know that Little Passports is a PTPA Award Winner?

I really love learning activities like Little Passports.  They teach kids valuable lessons in an interactive and creative way.

Thanks to PTPA and Little Passports, we are giving one lucky reader a 3 month Little Passports subscription!

Perhaps this isn't such a "wordless" Wednesday kind of post, but this video was shared by +Natalie Rea on Twitter last night, and I just had to share it.

1. I'm a West Island girl and can't resist sharing posts related to people or things from my old 'hood.
2. I think we need to remember all the many reasons why teachers are so important in our children's lives.

WARNING: Break out the Kleenex! You'll need it!


Link up your Wordless Wednesday posts here! We'd love to check them out!

At our home, we love science experiments!  I'm not talking about making penicillin/growing mold by leaving food in the fridge for too long (although I'm embarrassed to say that may or may not have happened in this house before)!  I'm talking about learning about why things are the way they are or how to create or manipulate matter. We love hands on experiments!

Kids learn by doing, so why not make it fun?!

One of my friends teaches in public school and she has got to be one of the coolest teachers around! I'd LOVE to be a student in her class. She always has lots of fun experiments to do with kids. When we have play dates with our kids, we always have fun projects for our 3, 4, and 5 year olds to do. For example, making our own polymer (aka: Goop!), making stained-glass with wax paper and melted crayons, and baking gluten-free cookies.

Recently, we grew our own crystals!

How cool is that?

MATERIALS NEEDED:

• string
• wide mouth pint jar 
•  pipe cleaners (we used sparkly, shiny ones)
• Borax 
• pencil, stick or BBQ skewer
• boiling water
• scissors

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. To make borax crystal snowflakes we need to first make the snowflake shapes with the pipe cleaners. Cut a pipe cleaner into three equal sections. You need to then twist the sections together at their centers, forming a six-sided snowflake shape. It doesn't have to be even because you can cut and trim the sides. Because our kids are so young, my friend and I did this step for them. Make sure the snowflake can fit inside the jar.
2. Next, tie the string to the end of one of the snowflake 'arms'. Then, tie the other end of the string to the pencil, stick, skewer. Make sure the length is so that the pencil hangs the snowflake into the jar. Not touching the bottom of the jar, but enough that the snowflake is fully immersed in the solution.
3. ADULTS, this is where you need to come in. Fill the wide mouth pint jar with boiling water. 
4. Now, add  one tablespoon of  borax at a time to the boiling water. Stir to dissolve after each addition of borax. The quantity: 3 tablespoons of borax per cup of water. 
5. Hang the pipe cleaner snowflake in the jar. Rest the pencil, stick, or BBQ skewer on top of the jar.  Make sure the snowflake is completely covered with liquid solution. Ensure that it hangs freely and doesn't touch the bottom or sides of the jar. If doing more than one experiment at a time, make sure none of the snowflakes are touching.
6. Let sit undisturbed overnight.
7. Presto! As my four year old will tell you, "It's like magic, but it's science!" You can now admire all the pretty crystals and hang your snowflake as a decoration or in a window to catch the sunlight. We're using ours as Christmas tree ornaments!

Looks like some kind of wacky science experiment, doesn't it? The water turned pink because of the purple pipe cleaners. We used some sparkly silver, blue, and purple pipe cleaners just to see what the effect would be. You can use regular pipe cleaners, but the sparkly ones really do add to effect and make the crystals look even more brilliant!

Important Notes

1. Borax is available at most grocery stores in the laundry detergent aisle. The one that is readily available in our local grocery stores is the 20 Mule Team Borax Laundry Booster.
2. Parents and adults required to not only supervise, but assist with this experiment. Boiling water is used and Borax is not meant to be eaten. Please make sure that there is an adult to supervise!
3. If you don't have Borax, you can also use sugar or salt. It may take longer to grow the crystals without the Borax, so be patient. Add sugar or salt to the boiling water until it stops dissolving. Ideally you want no crystals at the bottom of the jar.

These are so beautiful! My four year old was AMAZED to see the crystals form right before her eyes! We left the solution and the pipe cleaners overnight and within a short time we saw crystallization begin. By morning, the crystals were bigger and fuller. Truly amazing!  

The crystal snowflakes and stars make gorgeous decorations for the holidays! Try it! I'm sure your kids will love doing this fun "science experiment".

When one hears the name "Hallmark", the first thing that likely comes to mind is greeting cards.  Hallmark has made its name as a trusted company that specializes in all your greeting card needs, but it's not just cards that Hallmark has!

I won't lie.  Whenever I'm at the mall, I sneak into the Hallmark store! I can spend a very long time in there, so I'm lucky my little one loves the store too!  The Hallmark store is filled with thoughtful gift items that let loved ones know how much they meant to you.  I buy picture frames, coffee mugs, jewelry boxes, figurines, and other special gifts there. They carry a wide variety of products for all the special events and moments in your life.  They have gift items for milestones like births, birthdays, weddings, graduations, etc. They also carry items for every day moments...because every moment with friends and family is a special one.

As a member of the #HallmarkPressPause Panel, I get to share all the latest and greatest items and news with my readers, friends, and family.  One of the biggest surprises in the latest #HallmarkPressPause shipment were the Text Bands!

Text Bands are "The Coolest New Way for Kids to Connect".  Kids can bump fists, shake hands, or high five each other to exchange messages. Kids can choose between the charcoal and purple starter bands with text module and then if they want to switch things up, the text modules can be inserted into other fashion bands (sold separately).  My favourite is the Minnie Mouse one!

Want to see how they work? Check out this video!


Though Little One is not even 4 years old yet, she was intrigued by the Text Bands. Hubby and I thought they were really neat and had fun playing with them. The ones who were even more excited about the Text Bands were the older kids (nieces and their friends)!  There's even a Text Bands site kids can go to and find lots of cool games they can play to trade messages with their friends.

Some of the Text Bands games include Zombie Outbreak

and Silly Sentences.

Here's where I insert my honest opinion:
I'm a "Word Girl" and though the idea of words morphing into shortened versions of the original word makes me cringe, I also realize that in many cases now, words are shortened to 'fit' into a message box that contains only a few characters.

Take Twitter, for example. How do you fit everything you want to say into a 140 characters? As a teacher of English, seeing "Sup?", "C U L8TR", "TY!", "YW!" and "That's Gr8!" irritates me. However, just as long as my students and my daughter realize that those are just shortened versions and not the actual words, and know how they are spelled and used, I'm okay with that. Using "CRZY" and "L8TR" is absolutely fine...so long as children don't write their essays that way, I'm fine.

In short, the Text Bands are great for getting kids interested in playing with words. It's a fun way to interact with friends. If a game (or in this case, a Text Band) can get kids excited about words, I think that's pretty cool.  

Pssst! FYI: I'm guilty of shortening words too these days. If you are on my BlackBerry contact list, you'll notice this when I'm busy or in a rush! My BBM messages are very brief when I'm busy!

I'll be sharing more exciting products from Hallmark soon! Stay tuned!

Disclosure - As a member of the #HallmarkPressPause Panel, I received an assortment of Hallmark products for review purposes.  Regardless of my affiliation with the brand, all the thoughts and opinions on this blog are honest and my own.

What to do with a bunch of toddlers on a play date?

We make SLIME! That's what!

My friend found this amazing recipe online. What a great way to teach toddlers and preschoolers by doing a science experiment!

You need:
* white glue
* Borax
* water
* food colouring (optional)

There are two components to the slime recipe. You have a glue, water, and food colouring part and a water and Borax part. These have to be prepared separately.
* Adults: First, mix 1 tsp of Borax with 1 cup of water. Make sure to stir until Borax is dissolved.
* In another container/bowl, mix 1/2 c white glue with 1/2 c water (equal parts of each). At this point, you may add food colouring if you wish.
* With the help of the children, mix one solution into the other. The kids will be excited to see the slime polymerize right before their eyes.
The kids just learned that mixing these solutions creates polymer. They can also play with the slime and shape it into different shapes. Oh, who am I kidding? It's just ooey-gooey fun!

When I was teaching in Japan, one of my students once told me that her favourite thing to eat was Mick Jagger. Later on, I discovered that her favourite dish was actually called "Nikujaga". It just sounded a lot like "Mick Jagger"!

One of my Japanese friends is visiting us on the Island for a few days. She used to be a student of mine at one of the language schools I taught at when I was in Toronto. She reminded me last night that I taught her ten years ago! I cannot believe that we have known each other for ten years! That makes me sound ancient! I was twenty-five years old when I taught her!

Since things around here have been pretty crazy these past few weeks, my friend has taken it upon herself to make our suppers for us. Having Japanese food made by my Japanese friend makes me really miss Japan!
Tonight she made miso soup and Nikujaga. I had to laugh because whenever I hear the word "nikujaga", I think of Mick Jagger! Love him, by the way!

Look at these beauties from my gardens!
These gorgeous tomatoes above turn a lovely yellow when they're ripe. They are also very sweet! They go great in tomato salads or fresh salsas. I picked the veggies in the photo below just this morning.
I added a salad to our supper menu, since we had all these veggies from our garden.
C's Everything But The Kitchen Sink Salad
1 zucchini cut into bite sizes
1 cucumber, peeled and diced
Several Roma tomatoes, diced
Several sweet yellow tomatoes, diced
1 onion, chopped
1 green pepper, diced

The Yummiest Dressing Ever
Homemade maple syrup from our farm
Lemon juice
(My friend, Mrs. Bear made this simple dressing and I've been addicted to it ever since)

I basically used whatever I picked from the garden today. Add all ingredients into a bowl. Add dressing. Make sure veggies are well coated. Enjoy! Super healthy, filling, and tasty!

For dessert:
Apple Granitas
Since we have tons, and tons, and TONS of apples on our farm, I used my homemade apple sauce recipe, froze apple sauce, scraped frozen apple sauce with fork tines and served. Tasty frozen treat that is healthier for you than ice cream!
Step 1: Wash and quarter apples.

Step 2: Cook apples (make sure they're not too mushy though!)

Step 3: Press through fruit press, colander, strainer, or whatever you've got (My Korean student learned how to make apple sauce in the above photo. Here she's using some good 'ol fashioned elbow grease to press the apples through to make the sauce)

Step 4:  Add in sugar of choice and other ingredients if you like. You can totally omit this step. I like to have no sugar in my apple sauce. Some people add cinnamon. This is entirely up to  you. This stage is the apple sauce stage.

Step 5: Freeze apple sauce
 Step 6: Scrape with fork and add into serving dishes

Step 7: Garnish, serve, and enjoy!
 Like my lovely stainless steel cups I got from Orkids.ca?

Okay, I just had to add a cute pic of Little One as she was helping me pick tomatoes from the garden.

Canada Day long weekend began with a trip across the water from the Island to Tobermory.
Since we have students with us this summer, we thought it would be a great occasion to spend the day in Tobermory, walk around, grab something to eat for lunch, check out all the neat little shops, go on a glass bottom boat tour of the shipwrecks, explore and walk around Flower Pot Island, and make it back to the Island on the last boat so we could catch the fireworks in South Baymouth.

We passed my dream house on our way back. There were some stunning houses and some even had observation decks on the roof! I keep hinting to my husband that he really wants to sell the farm and get a house on the water! ;) Just kidding!

Of course, we couldn't let our ESL student return to South Korea without sampling something truly Canadian. The Beaver Tail.

We made it back to the Island in time to catch the fireworks display. It was brilliant - even better than I had expected. Each year they seem to get better and better.

Saturday began with a birthday party for one of Little One's friends. He turned 4 on Saturday and the theme for his party was "BUGS"! I don't know if I've mentioned this, but I'm deathly afraid of insects!!! Clowns, heights, insects, and small spaces freak me out.

It was a great party. The kids had fun. Little One didn't want to leave, but we had a Canada Day parade to rush to. After the parade, we went home for a little rest and then headed back to South Bay for the fish fry.

Sunday was a scorcher, so we spent the afternoon at the beach. Little One just loves the sand and crystal clear water. We are so fortunate to live so close to such gorgeous beaches.


Hanging out with the students. Little One is always around people and enjoys the company.

Sunday evening was spent with Daddy too! Daddy's always so busy, so it was a treat to have him for a few hours. We took the boat out on the lake for a little cruise.


What a lovely way to end the long weekend.

When you teach ESL students and host them at your home, knowing some of their traditional dishes sometimes helps with homesickness. Having familiar food "from home" always makes life in a new country a little more comfortable. Of course, the students eat everything we offer and not just food from their country. We have a wide variety of dishes like Shepherd's Pie, lasagna, Chicken Parmesan, Pad Thai, Pho, sushi, etc...

One of our favourite dishes is Korean Beef Bulgogi.


The direct translation of Bulgogi is "fire meat". Basically, the meat is marinated and cooked on an open flame. I cook it in a pan on my stove top.

I thought I'd post the recipe on my blog, since about a dozen people have asked me to e-mail them the recipe!






Beef (sirloin or any other prime cut), thinly sliced
onion, thinly sliced
mushroom, sliced
carrot, Julienned/matchstick cut
green pepper, thinly sliced
garlic, minced
green onion, chopped
salt and black pepper
soy sauce
sesame oil
oyster sauce
honey

* Note: I do not use measurements, but just cook by taste.

Instructions:

In a large bowl, put thinly sliced beef and all ingredients. Mix together and let marinate. Overnight is best, but if you don't have time, even 20 minutes will do.

On high heat, cook all ingredients in a large pan or wok. The trick to very tender meat is high heat and cooking the meat fast.

Once the meat and vegetables are cooked, serve on top of a bed of rice. You can sprinkle toasted sesame seeds on top as a garnish if you wish!

Enjoy!

 Yesterday, we said goodbye to one of my ESL students. He came to study with me last September and the time has come for him to end his studies on the Island. For the past eight months, he has been a regular fixture in Little One's life. I sometimes think she believes that he is her brother.  They play together, she argues with him, he spoils her, keeps her occupied...and they have become best buddies.

It was so sad to say goodbye.
 We took the students on a field trip to Bridal Veil Falls the day before our student left. Little One got to accompany us on our trip.
 P.S. Isn't her backpack just adorable? You can win one on my reviews blog!